Academic Reports

The 2017 Child Protective Services ‘CPS’ Comprehensive Report.

Revised w/ Footnotes 4-24-17

Written by Patricia Mitchell.

The subject matter is a simplified break down of the current Child Protective Services agencies, (known as DHS) uncovering the core root, where the corruption originates within this agency for more than 25 years. Illuminating the source of the obstacles & dilemmas that plagued this agency therefore, revealing solutions.

This CPS Report was originally written/researched & investigated for victims of CPS, State Legislatures, Federal Law Makers and Laypersons; understanding the CPS Industry & Culture.

HuffPost published this Report for all interested parties.

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An Overview

The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) has reported that, in 2011, 1,545 children across the United States died because of abuse or neglect.1 At least 1,000 (but possibly closer to 1,400) of those fatalities occurred within the Child Protective Services (CPS) system.2 A more accurate number of children dying on CPS‘s watch might be three times as high – deaths stemming from child abuse and neglect are significantly underreported and there is no national standard for reporting them. If we included the thousands of children that go missing after placement into ―”CPS” state custody, the number would continue to go up. When the Children‘s Bureau (a division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services) annually reports the number of children who die in CPS custody, that number has been rounded off to the nearest thousand, a practice that has continued for years – so if the real number of children losing their lives in CPS custody was 1,499 in a given year, the Bureau would report it as 1,000.3 The children reported missing after entering CPS custody are counted separately, and we can presume the majority of CPS‘s thousands of missing children are dead. This reasoning comes from the fact that the majority of “children missing” are under the age of 7 years old. According to federal statistics, over a five-year period, 5,000 to 7,450 American children died (reportedly) after having been taken from their parents and forced into CPS ― “care.”4 The unreported deaths of foster care children annually, is feared to be much higher then the reported statistic.

In 2013, another report found that 570 children in California’s CPS State Custody died in one year.5 In 2008, 1,284 children went missing in CPS in the State of Ohio.6 That same year, Washington State‘s CPS reported 1,261 missing children, while Colorado‘s reported 747.7 Southern states have had the highest numbers of babies dying in CPS custody, in the south CPS agencies commonly shred their files in lieu of reporting the deaths.8 We have interviewed several retired and ex CPS supervisors, with years of experience in the field, who have confirmed these trends and added brutal horror stories of their own. Newspaper articles from all over the country have reported children in CPS enduring months of serial rapes, vicious beatings, dehydration, and malnourishment.9 Foster parents sedating foster children, placing them in cages, handcuffing them to objects, and locking them in dark rooms for days. Healthy children (including those as young as 3 months old) dubbed ― “emotional problems” once in CPS custody are given prescription drugs, pharmaceuticals, supplied by the CPS caseworker, paid for by our government, administered by the foster parents. 80 percent of children in CPS custody are considered having― “emotional problems” ripe for ‘meds,’10 while more than half of all children in foster care are considered to have ― “chronic medical problems,”11 every time a caseworker labels a child, a prescription is made out for that child. Children that were perfectly healthy prior to entering Family/CPS courts and/or State Custody are relentlessly given drugs.

According to the Children‘s Bureau, 64 percent of children in foster care are abused.12Many people closer to this industry believe the number is closer to 87 percent. 82 percent of the severely abused and deaths are under the age of four.13 These children were taken from their birth parents and given to unqualified and unfit foster parents. CPS staff members and affiliates themselves also register as foster parents, as it suits their financial interests. CPS-affiliated workers in every state have been charged with some of the most sadistic forms of child abuse, including the rape of toddlers and infants.14 This includes foster care parents, CPS caseworkers, CPS employees, CPS nurses, CPS doctors, CPS supervisors, and regional directors, all charged with raping newborns and toddlers, or pornography, and/or child abuse. Too many Americans have become desensitized to these reports, shutting their eyes, covering their ears, thinking, ‘that can‟t be true’ or ‘I don‟t want to hear or know that.’ CPS staff members, caseworkers, and affiliates have federal immunity,15 rarely held accountable for actions leading up to a child‘s mistreatment, death, or disappearance. Many of the deaths of children that occur in foster care and/or through family courts, are ruled accidents by the case workers that placed the child into the dangerous environment, with the unfit adult.

This report is not intended to impugn the 20 to 30 percent of foster parents who provide safe homes for the vulnerable children they‘ve taken in. It, instead, focuses on the 70 to 80 percent of foster homes that do not deliver the basic needs and requirements – and why.

―”Yearly, referrals to state child protective services involve 6.3 million children and approximately 3 million of those children are subject to an investigated report.”16 According to the AFSCARS Report and Children‘s Bureau, CPS caseworkers seized anywhere from 650,000 to one million American children from their homes, playgrounds, hospitals, and schools in 2011, this statistic remains unchanged through 2014, almost half (47%) of them age 5 or younger and the majority are under age 9. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2011-2014)17

Each year, thousands of more children and parents fall prey to CPS‘s fractured system, with only 6 percent (or 39,000 out of 650,000) of these children having been in legitimate danger.18 Laypeople assume there was probable cause to have taken these children, and that CPS will give them a better life. But prior to CPS‘s involvement, the majority of these children were healthy and happy. So why were they driven into a system that is broken, a system that attracts so many predators, pedophiles, and the otherwise emotionally unstable?

Relying on the current statistics, within a five-year period, that‘s close to 5 million children separated from their parents, families, and homes. Many will suffer permanent damage, although the grand majority should have never been separated from their parents. CPS caseworkers and court officials often tell traumatized parents that it won‘t help their children‘s well-being (or prospects of their children‘s return) if they go to the press. Scared but silenced, these parents may never learn their children‘s whereabouts or outcomes in time.

The local CPS agencies‘ manipulation of the U.S. government for financial gain is not unlike the recent (2013/14/15) widespread defrauding of the Medicaid system19 which has reached epidemic proportions in almost every state. One CPS supervisor and a caseworker were charged with ―”criminal wrongdoing” after a determined sister spent months trying to convince CPS that her ―”special needs” brother was being abused in his foster home – only to discover he was killed months earlier, in that same foster home. The supervisor and caseworker were not held accountable for the child‘s death, only for eliminating the child‘s file to help cover up the trail.20 The handful of states that do reveal accurate numbers of missing children have learned they won‘t be held accountable for dead or lost children (only for falsifying computer records), which may be why Ohio, Washington State and Colorado‘ reported numbers that are substantially higher then the rest of the country.

The federal government (allows practically unlimited) funds to each State‘s CPS offices. Many at the local levels have learned, over time, how to manipulate this system to accommodate their own twisted desires.

CPS Supervisors are required to have a Master‘s Degree in social work, a requirement that is not regularly enforced. CPS District and Regional Commissioners/Supervisors are not required to have Child Development Degree or experience in childcare development, but rather a Degree, regardless of what field their Degree is in. CPS caseworkers are supposed to have a Bachelor‘s or Associate‘s Degree – yet supervisors have hired those with no degree or relevant background, essentially hiring people off the streets. CPS supervisors admit their caseworkers are often ―”unequipped, over-worked, and have too many cases,” without the appropriate education and experience to work with the diversity of cultures that make up American families.21 Several caseworkers claiming to have Degrees, in fact, did not. Some states require caseworkers to annually devote 40 hours to retraining updates per the CPS Policy Manual, but they often perform these hours ―”whenever,” rather than at one consecutive time. The retraining is overseen by either ―”in-house policy people” or an ―”outside contractor” hired by CPS, adding more people to the CPS payroll. Some Supervisors are required to put in 20 hours of undated training every year.

In the larger cities, the majority of CPS employees are newly arrived immigrants, often struggling with English and unfamiliar with American family dynamics.22 Just like other industries where certain cultural groups dominate a professional field, in the larger U.S. cities CPS employers and affiliates are primarily African-Nationals females, first-generation Mexican- Americans, and Eastern Bloc and Asian men.23 In the smaller cities and rural areas, CPS employees often have criminal ties.24

Federal laws meant to protect children are frequently not observed by CPS staff and/or affiliates. According to caseworkers and Supervisors, ―”it‘s difficult to find/access the Policy Manual online (it was easier when the Policy Manual was in hard copy).” 25 Supervisors do not encourage caseworkers to read the online version, acknowledging they ―”read the manual in training” but seldom, if ever, refer to it on a daily or even monthly base, explaining that decisions are made in ―”crisis-driven” moments. District and Regional Commissioners often rely on their Branch Supervisors (a lower-ranking position) for answers to their questions about CPS rules and mandates.

Nationwide, it takes only 3 steps to become a foster parent: (1) the applicant must have a bed for the child; (2) the applicant must show proof of income (not only are disability, unemployment, and welfare accepted – these are the most commonly accepted forms of income proof); and (3) the CPS caseworker performs a background check. The policy manual does NOT forbid a caseworker from accepting applicants with a criminal record, after the background check is done. Caseworkers and Supervisors have confessed to accepting applicants ―as long as they (the foster parents) did not have ̳violent‘ record.‖ However, applicants with violent records regularly enter the CPS system.26 Another Supervisor has confessed, ―if we could not accept foster parents with criminal records we would have no foster parents.‖ Supervisors leave it up to the individual caseworker to decide if an applicant will make an appropriate foster parent.

Children are kept in State Custody for as long as possible, even after the CPS caseworker and affiliates discover allegations against the parent(s) were false. CPS protects the foster parents. For example, a caseworker will assure prospective foster parents that CPS will not check in on them without calling first, most likely to further entice them into registering. However, this practice has had unintended consequences, attracting pedophiles and predators to become foster parents.

An anonymous caller (i.e., a scorned girlfriend, sour neighbor, spiteful partner, envious family member) phones in a complaint against a parent, without any evidence that the allegation is true – that‘s all it can take for children‘s removal from their homes, snatched out of their parents‘ arms by under-qualified CPS caseworkers. Caseworkers have enough authority to direct police Officers to escort them into any home, to take children away, regardless of whether the Officers, Doctors, Therapists, Judges, Mayors, Senators, or other professional experts adamantly disagree. While serving as an Arizona State Senator, Rick Murphy‘s children were taken away by CPS caseworkers. His case remained unresolved for over a year (with his children in foster care) and his local CPS agency has the ability to terminate his parental rights.27 Many believe this was an act of defiance by CPS, without real concern for his children‘s safety.28

Unlike criminal courts, CPS Court defendants are guilty until proven innocent. Some States refer to their CPS courts as ― “Probate,” while others call them “Juvenile,” among other designations – all of these Courts give preferential treatment to CPS caseworkers‘ and affiliates‘ complaints against the parent. The parents are present at the majority of these ―”Hearings” or ―”Sessions” but without Representation, as most cannot afford an attorney. Federal laws do not guarantee parents a court appoint attorney when CPS takes children, (unless parental right are being terminated) the laws are vague and inconsistent in each State.29

For the past 25 years, parents have tried fighting the CPS industrial complex (the Local, State, and Federal governments) all alone, fighting for their children‘s lives. In Michigan, one young mother stayed up until 4:30 a.m., learning how to draft Motions and file counter-Motions before an 8 a.m. Court appearance, because she was not given a court appointed attorney and she could not afford to hire an attorney, literally she fought in the Courts for her and her child’s life; fighting against attorney’s that hold law degrees. The Court sat her amongst the attorneys, having her question witnesses, etc. – even the Guardian Ad Litem praised her intellect and preparation. All CPS wanted was custody of the child; all the child‘s mother wanted was to love and protect her child. Prior to this morning in court, CPS had given her child to the father, who lived in an old gutted- out School Bus on the property of a twice-convicted sex offender who lived in a trailer a few feet away and was on probation at the time. ―”What is a sex offender going to do to a baby, she‘s a baby?” the CPS caseworker asked the Judge (who never removed the child from the life threatening environment, even after the story appeared on the cover of their local newspaper).30 It was the mother who uncovered the sex offender‘s history and brought it to the court. Desperate to save her child‘s life, she filed a Motion to place the child in ―”Neutral Territory,” asking the courts to place her child with her own estranged parents. Although a Referee granted the Motion, the CPS courts postured over this mother‘s city manners and intellect, used deception, broke rules and laws resulting in terminating her parental rights. Without any allegations of neglect or abuse, basing the termination of her parental rights on her conflict-ridden relationship with the estranged family members and the child‘s father; along with an unjust label of ―”Abandonment” (after her court-appointed visitations were not honored, the mother left the State where she was visiting, where this CPS case was filed, to get help and support from friends in NYC where she lived for a decade; CPS courts then filed a petition to terminate her parental rights without informing her, for Abandonment). It didn‘t matter that everyone who testified agreed this mother ―”was wonderful, very loving.”

Some States have recently provided court-appointed attorneys.31 However, the States leave that decision to county officials, which may lead to unjust, one-sided verdicts. ALL court-appointed attorneys are paid through CPS, thus are a part of this system. The CPS courts have a tremendous amount of flexibility and plenty of room to manipulate each case to ensure the desired outcome. When Guardian Ad Litems, therapists, psychiatrists, etc. do not support the CPS caseworkers‘ allegations against the parents, or CPS‘s decision where to place a child, CPS will almost always sever, and not renew, its contract with that professional. This has caused a conflict of interest, and has caused professionals not to act in the best interests of the child and parents.

Who gave such all-encompassing authority to CPS caseworkers? We did.

We, as citizens, voted in the lawmakers who created and passed the laws intended to protect our children. First created at the Federal level, the CPS-related Legislation passes through Congress. A State-level CPS Director or Commissioner sends the new laws to the State Capitol‘s Legal Unit, which works with CPS Policy Developer units to rewrite or develop the Policy Manual – a comprehensive guide for CPS administrators. The manual then is approved by the individual States‘ Attorneys General offices, handed over to the Regional CPS offices, and finally, distributed to CPS local branch offices, all over each State.

CPS may keep a child in state custody for as long as it wants, for as long as it can. Even though States have internal rules (such as returning the child in three weeks – in some States, it‘s seven days), no one is enforcing these internal rules, resulting in children left in foster care for three months on average, even after CPS courts know the allegations against the parent were false. Supervisors rarely, if ever, intervene. The more children in foster care, the more money a CPS branch office will receive from the federal government. CPS staff and Affiliates‘ salaries are directly affected by how many children the local CPS office places in State Custody. News of these loopholes (financial incentives) within the CPS industry has spread like wildfire throughout local communities. It became known as an easy way to ―“make a buck.” Predators, pedophiles, drug addicts and the emotional unstable gravitated toward CPS foster care as a means to make ends meet – to pay rent, put food on the table, and subsidize their alcohol or drug habits.

But from the Federal Government‘s perspective it must seem logical – the more children in CPS custody, the more money each local office will need to pay everyone involved. However, these unlimited funds have led to unintended consequences.

Legislative History

This all began more than 30 years ago, after a series of laws were passed, beginning in 1974. First there was the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974 (CAPTA) (Public Law 93-247). Then came the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-272). Next were the Child Abuse Prevention, Adoption and Family Services Act of 1988 (P.L. 100-294). Then, in 1997, the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) (Public Law 105-89) and finally, the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act (P.L. 108-36) in 2003.

CAPTA provided Federal Funding for ―“wide-ranging Federal and State child maltreatment services.”32 States and Local communities (government) interpreted this as: we can use this federal money to create jobs in our communities. And so began the idea of Child Protective Services “CPS” as a Business. CPS funds extended itself into the local communities, making itself available to foster parents, counselors, therapists, psychiatrists, doctors, attorneys, investigators, Guardian Ad Litems, anger management programs, therapeutic classes, parenting classes, various programs and agencies like Family First and Head Start, and anything else one could think up that contributes to —“training or guiding” parents or children, under the umbrella of DHS federal funds. Thus, a large portion of community members‘ salaries and livelihoods became dependent on children‘s foster care placement.

In 1980, the Adoption Assistance Child Welfare Act gave financial incentives to foster parents willing to adopt a child, to help lower the number of children living in foster care. This law directed caseworkers to make ―”reasonable efforts”33 to prevent a child‘s removal from their parents‘ home, but CPS caseworkers and affiliates have, instead, used this term as more license to place a child in foster care. For example, if a single father is working and cannot attend a mandatory parenting class, the caseworker can use the ―”reasonable efforts” language to support her decision to bring his child permanently into the system, to be adopted out (i.e., claiming the parent did not make ―”reasonable efforts” to regain his child). Caseworkers also use this hyper- flexible term to suggest they made ―”reasonable efforts” to provide parents with opportunities to comply with their requests. Children are held as prisoners in foster homes for reasons such as a parent‘s: lack of transportation to attend a class; incarceration for circumstances surrounding a traffic violation; hospitalization after a cancer diagnosis; and even military service overseas.

In the earlier-referenced Michigan case, the Family First caseworker misused her authority by targeting her estranged sister, who just became a mother. The sisters had been estranged for more than 14 years, living in different states. The child‘s mother had been a successful fashion model in NYC, working and living in six different countries, graduating with honors from two prestigious schools, including the U.K.‘s King‘s College, receiving a B.A. in two years. A former Miss Teen Michigan Runner up and State-Champion in Children‘s Storytelling, she was involved with her church and volunteered with the Special Olympics. The less accomplished and over weight younger sister/Family First caseworker told CPS that the child‘s mother had a mental problem, without providing evidence of one. This is how the child‘s father ended up getting full custody, without a Hearing. When the mother refused to surrender custody to the dysfunctional father (a con-artist, tenth grade drop out, who lived in a bus, next to a convicted sex offender) she was jailed and shackled, and the twice- convicted sex offender (towards children) drove the father to the police station to pick up the child. CPS would later use the mother‘s resistance as evidence against her to terminate her parental rights, giving the incident labels such as, ―”Arrested for Kidnapping” and ― “criminal behavior that jeopardized the welfare of her child.” CPS never removed this child from the real life-endangering environment. It was the mother who filed a Motion pleading to place her child into “Neutral Territory,” removing her child from the bus and into her estranged parents‘ home, allowing her estranged parents to have temporary custody.

CPS often uses generic terms (i.e., a ―”history of substance abuse”), without offering any substantiation. A ―”history of mental illness” can be found in almost every CPS petition filed against a parent, without a doctors diagnoses‘ without referring to an incident or ‘a history.‘ I’ve spoken to mothers who’ve never taken drugs or been in the presence of drugs and never drank a glass of alcohol; yet their CPS petition against them suggests other wise —’history of substances abuse.’ When mental health professional or any expert witness/professional testifies ‘in favor’ of a parent; (against CPS’s decision to place the child in State custody) CPS caseworkers will insist that the professionals‘ opinion’s are ONLY to be used to help CPS caseworkers and CPS employees make ‘their’ decision; reminding the Judge that legal authority (where to place the child) remains solely with CPS. (not with the pro’s & experts suggestions, evidence and opinions)

The 1980 Act provided additional financial incentives for prospective foster parents. Its main provisions encouraged foster parents to adopt ―”special needs” children, who were eligible for the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. Foster parents are paid anywhere from $408 in the South, to $3,990 in Connecticut, per month, per child.34 The dollar amounts vary from State to State, according to the child‘s age, health status, special needs, or ―”intensive structural and clinical level care.” The ―”intensive structural and clinical” children are the ones who can go for approximately $3,990 per month and up. A woman in Florida, living in a million-dollar home, was found to have neglected five foster ―”intensive structural” children for over a decade, who were tucked away and sedated in two of her bedrooms, dehydrated and underweight.35She used the CPS money to supplement her lavish lifestyle, fostering CPS children with ―”intensive structural” needs over a twelve-year period. As with so many of these cases, the neighbors never saw any children on her premises during those twelve years.

More typically foster children go for $600 to $1,200 a month,36 with ―special needs‖ children coming in at $900 to $3,990 a month,37 but can go as high as $13,000 a month for a severely disabled child.38 Foster parents willing to adopt a child receive an additional *flat sum of *$2,000 to $4,000, a federal adoption tax credit, and health insurance incentives (with, again, the special needs and ―”intensive structural” children proving the most profitable).39 According to the 1980 Act, a foster child with ―”Special Needs.”

*Cannot be returned to the parents;

*Has a special condition, such that the child cannot be placed without providing assistance; and

*Has not been able to be placed without assistance.

With so much room for interpretation, the CPS caseworkers, alone, call the shots when it comes to labeling a child as ―”special needs” not a professional. In one case, a CPS affiliate became a foster parent (a common practice) and registered the child as ―”special needs,” due to a small and common type of birthmark (called a ―”strawberry” or hemangioma), to receive larger checks each month. Children in State Custody are often given unnecessary surgeries or, on the flip side, denied surgery for legitimate medical conditions, even in cases where the parent still legally holds parental rights, such as in this birthmark scenario. The CPS paperwork clearly refers to the birthmark-removal procedure as ―”Elective surgery”40 – so here is yet another instance of the CPS openly flouting Federal mandates. The birth mother pleaded with CPS not to perform surgery on her child, quoting the CPS law to the caseworker making the decision: ―”the child in state custody may be operated on if it is a life-threatening situation.” The child‘s doctor (not the CPS doctor) expressed his own concerns – if the surgery went awry, the child could be permanently damaged, with the possibility of a stroke or death. The mother (who still had parental rights) pleaded with CPS to allow her to be there for her two-year-old child before and after the unnecessary surgeries (five surgeries in total), but CPS refused. The upshot?… The Guardian Ad Litem, CPS doctors, Judges, foster parents, and caseworker and all others involved with this child‘s case received larger paychecks.

Caseworkers label perfectly healthy children as ―”special needs” for extra profit; and fraudulently reporting 82 percent of foster care children have ―”chronic medical problems.” Encouraged by caseworkers, a majority of foster parents sedate —“special needs” children 24 hours a day. CPS claims that 82 percent of children in foster care ‘are in need’ of medication,41 funded by our federal government. Note: Pharmaceutical companies have contracts with DHS/CPS.42

The federal governments’ CPS Policy Manual states.. there should be no more than four foster children in one household. Yet, CPS caseworkers and supervisors have allowed (and coerced) foster parents to take up to 18 children into one home, with more than half registered as ―”special needs.”43 In one case where the caseworker and male foster parent worked together to bring 18 children into a mobile home, neighbors‘ repeated suspicions and complaints to CPS were ignored by CPS (*due to the fact that CPS placed the children in this home, and once a child or children is placed with a foster parent CPS tells the foster parent (parents) that CPS will not come to check on them, this is a line that is spoken to all ‘will-be’ foster parents. Caseworkers are encouraged to say to possible foster parents, ”we will not check on you, once you take a foster child.” This statement has caused heinous crimes to go undetected for years against young children. Only after a determined police officer obtained a search warrant were the children discovered in cages, handcuffed to objects, and severely dehydrated and malnourished. Prior to the raid, the caseworker phoned the foster parent, tipping him off that the police were on their way, advising him to pack up the kids and leave town.Although this particular caseworker and foster parent were caught, the large majority of foster children suffer in silence without a voice, and without the abuser held accountable for their sadistic abuse toward foster children. These children have a much harder shot at health, safety, and freedom, due to the current CPS system‘s design and operation. In a similar case, the foster father was violently abusive to his wife and foster children, with an 11- year-old boy found with a large gash on his head. The foster parent (who had been fostering children for nine years) used thick red thread to sew the skin on the child‘s head together with a needle, without anesthesia. These children cowered under beds, feces and urine everywhere. Neighbors constantly called CPS, insisting the children lived in terror. CPS assured the callers/neighbors that the children were safe, because CPS placed them in this residence. Several children had been imprisoned in that home for more than 5 years. This is not a rarity – most children in foster care live in constant fear and turmoil.

Inappropriate relationships between caseworkers and foster parents have become common – and these financially beneficial partnerships often cover up some of the most heinous forms of foster-care abuse.44

I personally noticed this disturbing trend more than 15 years ago, witnessing a CPS caseworker who spent a weekend parting at thee young father‘s home during a weekend visitation with his baby, who was under CPS observation at the time. The father had an extensive violent criminal record, a chronic alcoholic, drinking in the morning throughout the day and evening, and smoked pot daily. When I reported the situation to CPS supervisors, they saw it as something positive – “the caseworker was so dedicated that she stayed overnight, and the weekend with the father.” Meanwhile, the father and caseworker were seen in a bar together, drinking in the middle of the day (during this same weekend the father had visitation with his baby). The father was positioning the caseworker against the mother, who held custody. I interviewed a young woman who ―”partied” at the father‘s house. She said the caseworker drank and smoked with the father all day and night, and the father had more than 20 people coming in and out of the house for three days, at all hours of the night, during his weekend visitation. When asked, my source said she saw the baby crawling in the kitchen, unattended, surrounded by carving tools, while everyone else was outside by a bonfire. She added that the baby was often left alone in a back room for hours on end. When the caseworker returned the baby to the mother on a Sunday night, after a weekend of partying, the baby began vomiting yellowish-green bile, and when the mother asked the caseworker to give her a ride to the hospital, the caseworker said she was too tired and had to go home. The ER doctor made his own CPS alert reports against the father, but the same caseworker ignored the doctor‘s legitimate concerns, and the next day the mother lost custody of her baby to this ‘young father with a criminal record.‘ The Judge gave full custody to the father who the CPS courts referred to as a ―”functional alcoholic.” However, the Judge signed over custody to this father in the hallway of the courthouse with two caseworkers present, without a Hearing or Session, without the Judge hearing about the mother‘s qualifications and the violent criminal history of the father. The mother had no criminal record, a four-year college degree, worked full time, was involved with her church, and had no allegations of neglect or abuse. The father told CPS that the mother had a history of mental illness, yet no history was listed or presented as evidence (claims without any medical bases, a character assassination not a clinical diagnosis, defaming the mother). CPS‘s doctors and therapists did not support this claim.

Thousands of children in the CPS system go missing each year. If the caseworker does not tell anyone the child is missing, no one will know. As parents‘ ”rights” are in the process of being terminated, a CPS caseworker might tell them: ― “your child is in a loving home, she is doing well you have no need to worry.” Caseworkers who discover a foster parent abusing a child in State Custody, will often stay quiet to hold onto their jobs and more importantly their reputations, as it was their responsibility to ensure this home‘s suitability. In the rare case of an ethical caseworker putting a child‘s safety above their reputation or job security, he or she would bring this information to a CPS Supervisor, now putting this supervisor‘s job, reputation, and branch office‘s status on the line. Thus, abused children in foster care go unreported and are not removed from the abuser/foster parent.

The Child Abuse Prevention, Adoption and Family Services Act of 1988 (P.L. 100-294) attempted to correct unforeseen glitches in the 1980 Act. *The 1988 Act‘s main provisions involved establishing ― “a national data collection system to include standardized data on ‘false, unfounded or unsubstantiated cases’ and the number of deaths due to child abuse and neglect [within the foster care system]” and expanding adoption opportunities. A few states developed their own watchdog agencies (such as Michigan‘s Children Ombudsman Agency) to monitor local CPS misconduct. However these agencies have now become a part of the (same broken) system and not acting in the best interests of these children, parents, and families.

I also have personal experience working with these agencies. They collect the disturbing data, but do not have the authority to do anything with it – nor does anyone else. In one case, the Children Ombudsman Agency collected data in favor of the mother and against the CPS court that terminated her parental rights. After it became clear the CPS courts (and other local courts) violated 19 separate rules and laws, which resulted in the termination of parental rights, the Grand Traverse City courts were ―fined‖ in response to the formal grievances the mother filed with the higher State courts against this county‘s courts. In a rare acknowledgement, the Michigan Attorney General‘s Office, along with State Representative Jason Allen, encouraged the mother to sue the State for Custody45 – but the attorneys she met with wanted no less than $100,000 as a retainer, which she couldn‘t afford. She developed ulcers, stomach cancer, severe anemia, and Crohn‘s Disease, all within months of (what became) her permanent separation from her child.

In 1997, the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) (Public Law 105-89) passed, exacerbating existing problems by shortening the time children spent in foster care, further cementing CPS‘s operation as a for-profit business industry. Additional ―”financial incentives” were given to CPS staff and affiliates to terminate parental rights within a *15-month period vs. an unspecific indefinite amount of time. ASFA was intended to ―correct problems‖ Congress believed the 1980 law created that ―”deterred adoptions of children with ‘special needs.‘” Congress believed that States interpreted the 1980 law as ―”requiring families be kept together no matter what.” However, in my 18 years of research, I saw no evidence of ‘special needs‘ children remaining with abusive birth parents as a result of the 1980 Act. However, I did see overwhelmed, loving parents reaching out to local CPS/DHS agencies for guidance about the cost and time their real special needs child required, inquiring about State and Federal programs to ease their family‘s burden. Still, within 24 hours of those visits to CPS/DHS, a CPS caseworker would be making arrangements to remove this ― “special needs” child from their home (without abuse or neglect allegations), later finding a way to use the mother‘s own words against her. Once this ‘special needs‘ child was in state custody, only a few months later, the CPS caseworker coerced the overwhelmed parent to give her child up for adoption, with assurances such as, ― “it is best for your child to have a loving home where you will know all his needs are being met” or ― “your child is going to suffer because you cannot afford to take care of him/her.” But the majority of ― “special needs” foster children are not afforded adequate food, water, sleep, and safety, much less love and kindness.

It‘s sometimes hard for a layperson to understand how a child can get lost within the system. But this is how: the parent believes the caseworker‘s assurances that the child is fine, the child is assigned to an ill-equipped foster parent, and the caseworker moves the child to the next county or out of state (which has become a common practice in the last decade). The child becomes a file and a caseworker has more than 100 to 165 of these files. When convenience calls for it, the caseworker might toss files in the trash. In the past ten years, children (who are U.S. citizens) have even been moved out of the country, often to Mexico or countries where a distant relative lives.46 CPS sent a five-year-old girl to live with her distant Mexican uncle, who she (and her mother) never met, only to be raped and murdered one week later. View the mother‘s plea for justice. www.bing.com/videos/searchq=innocnet+destoryed&FORM=VIRE4#view=detail&mid=BD83D28AC44C54CDF313BD83D28AC44C54CDF313

Everyone‘s hands are tied once a caseworker makes a decision. Parents cannot petition the CPS courts or file a Motion in CPS Courts, unlike with Family Courts. The way CPS courts are set up, it is all one-sided, favoring the State and CPS. Parents are forced to wait until CPS brings the allegations to court, for parents to have the opportunity to legally respond.

ASFA‘s most troubling feature involves its ― “Title IV-E of the Social Security Act” funding- related amendment. State and local CPS offices interpreted this as a financial free-for-all, unlimited federal funds for the entire community. This law intended to ― “shift emphasis toward children‘s health and concerns, away from the policy of reuniting children with their birth parents.” Days after this 1997 Act went into effect, CPS solidified its role as a Big Business, with American children as commodities. At this time CPS began to remove children from their homes and parents, with weak allegations. Disgruntled neighbors, scorned exes, angry employees, and envious family members are using the CPS courts as weapons against innocent parents. This has become a common practice in every county. CPS supervisors are encouraged ― “to get there numbers up” which mean we need more kids in foster care, CPS caseworkers are known to target parents who are vulnerable in some capacity. In the earlier-referenced Michigan case, in an unprecedented move, Assistant Prosecutor filed an appearance in the mothers Reverse Custody Trial, Representing the mother as the FIT parent to receive full custody. Turning against the estranged sister/who was also a Family First caseworker (used false accusations to place her sisters child with the father who was unfit/living in a school bus etc) On the day the mother won her child back from the father living in the school bus (in the Reverse Custody Trial), the sister hired her own attorney to ―”Intervene” – not to gain custody of her sister‘s child, but to have the child placed permanent into State Custody. The sister succeeded. Cruelly targeting the ’Fit’ mother using false petitions (that were dismissed) as evidence against the mother. To further manipulate the system, this sister/caseworker registered as a foster parent, to receive the monthly checks for fostering her niece. If she had gone through the Family Courts (instead of the CPS system), the wicked sister wouldn‘t have been able to seize custody from the child‘s mother. As referenced earlier, the sister then registered this healthy toddler with CPS as a ― “special needs” child, claiming her birthmark needed surgeries, forcing the toddler to undergo five unnecessary surgeries, adding/assuring large monthly paychecks to this wicked/estranged sister’s income for the next several years. She also unnecessarily held this child back one year. As if the child required ‘special needs,’ all in an effort to hide her misdeeds. Clearly in this case the Family First case worker/estranged sister) abused her authority with malicious intent. Therefore, breaking significant Federal laws.

ASFA‘s ―Title IV‖ amendment created a long list of financial beneficiaries at the local levels.

There are any where from 150 to 300 counties in each State, there are approximately 2 to 6 CPS offices per county and have more than 300 employees per agency.. Not including all the sub agencies, like Family First and Head Start etc. There are approximately 10,000 to 20,000 CPS employees per state.47 and have approximately 250 agencies/offices per state, not including the hundreds of CPS affiliates paid under the umbrella of the DHS federal funding that covers an even wider range of employees and services: CPS supervisors, caseworkers, and staff; foster parents; adoptive parents; attorneys; counselors, therapists and psychiatrists; investigators; sub- state agencies such as Family First; private agencies; outside contract agencies, insurance companies, magistrates; classes; child welfare researchers; child development programs; trauma crisis and intervention programs; pediatrics, emergency medicine, and mental health; probate and criminal law proceedings; education and substance abuse treatment. All of these agencies and individuals receive salaries or supplemental income from DHS/CPS. So why would a CPS office turn away a wealthy prospective adoptive parent like Rosie O‘Donnell? While CPS favoring a potential foster parent; a man on disability with12 children to care for in his trailer? The simple answer is that CPS would not receive long-term federal funds by adopting the child out to a ‘real and permanent,‘ financially stable, and loving adoptive parent. Since CPS has made adoption so difficult for real/stable parents in this country, it‘s no wonder so many loving and responsible prospective parents of means have turned to overseas adoption opportunities.

According to Marilyn Rainwater, a retired Oklahoma CPS Supervisor, who worked for CPS for 30 years, ― “It was drilled into supervisors on the local levels – if the caseworker did not meet the federal mandates of moving kids quickly in and out of the system [caseworkers interpreting this as taking custody of the child and quickly terminating their parental rights], then that CPS office would not receive the funding needed to keep the office open.” There are now federal penalties to further ensure the CPS offices deliver their ― “numbers” (children). What‘s troubling is how the ― “moving kids quickly in and out of the system” language was originally created at the federal level to quickly move the children back home with their parents, and/or move the child from foster care into a permanent home, with real adoptive parents. Unfortunately, CPS has re- interpreted it to mean the termination of innocent parents‘ rights, and terminating them as quickly as possible. Rainwater has vowed to dedicate the rest of her life to exposing the horrors occurring daily in the current CPS industry. As she shouted out to a packed auditorium at the Sister Giant Conference (in LA, Nov. 2012): ― “We are killing babies, hundreds of them, they are being raped and tortured every year and then thrown out like garbage, and no one is doing anything about it!‖ Rainwater continued: ― “caseworkers are shredding the dead child‘s files so no one knows about it, caseworkers are overworked/overwhelmed and have begun to falsify paperwork to reach their‘mandatory financial numbers.‘”

Federal law gives caseworkers the option of going through the long process of reuniting the child with the parent (requiring the caseworker to perform out-of-the-office ― “field work” including supervising each parent-child visitation, following up on the parents‘ parenting classes, anger management classes, substance abuse meetings, or therapy for the parent or child, etc….) OR remaining at his/her desk, drafting fabricated CPS petitions, ― “moving quickly” to terminate parental rights, which the Act refers to as ―”permanency planning.”48 A caseworker juggling over 160 cases does not have the time to reunite every child with the parents – it‘s quicker and more profitable to remove children from the comfort of their homes and fill out the necessary paperwork to Terminate Parents‘ Rights, thanks to increased funding from a federal government that crosses its fingers in hopes that the State and Local CPS communities will figure it out.

Under ASFA, even when a child has spent only 3 weeks of a 15-month period in the CPS system, (due to two separate bogus allegations, petitions dismissed, child returns) CPS may still begin the process of terminating parental rights if the person making the allegations calls a third time within 15 months from the original call. This could be considered, a ‘child being involved in CPS over 15 months‘; this is what occurred to the mother and her child based out of Traverse City, Michigan. Even if all three separate petitions ended in dismissal with the child‘s return to the parent, lazy, unqualified or overstretched caseworkers pressured to “make their numbers” begin the process of terminating parental rights, especially if a family member or the other parent of the child is pressuring the caseworker to do so, per the Act‘s desire to “develop permanency,” despite a CPS court itself concluding the allegations had no merit.

Another common CPS practice (that the 1997 ASFA fails to preclude) is to begin terminating a single parent‘s rights when that parent is hospitalized, incarcerated for a minor offense, or even serving in the military. Although grandparents and family members are more than willing to care for the children while the parent is temporary unavailable, these family members rarely ever win against CPS placing the children in foster care. (See Senator Nancy Schaefer‘s Report.) Thousands of loving parents and grandparents in a particularly vulnerable position may lose their children, as CPS argues that the child has been removed from the home. OR when CPS simply has a case open over 15 months, this may be grounds to terminate parents‘ and grandparents‘ rights. CPS describes these parents as ― “not attending to the emotional health and well-being of their child,” or labels these situations as ―”Abandonment.” When there is no allegation of neglect or abuse, CPS petitions continue to fall back on generic, sweeping terminology. Former supervisors have told me they ― “are constantly in crisis mode,” covering up dirty deeds and plowing over children and families as if they were only numbers on a paper, deleting and adding numbers, doctoring reports to make it look like the caseworker made ― “field visits” and ― “reasonable efforts” to keep the child with the birth parent.

The 2003 Keeping Children and Families Safe Act (KCFSA) was meant to amend and optimize 1974‘s CAPTA by FY 2008, the Adoption Opportunities Act, the Abandoned Infants Assistance Act, and the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act. KCFSA‘s major provisions include:

 Authorizing and expanding research programs;  Emphasizing enhanced linkages between CPS, public health, mental health, and disabilities agencies;  Mandating changes to policies, procedures, and provisions (i.e., one change involves making initial contact with the parent accused of wrongdoing);  Addressing the training of CPS workers;  Requiring CPS to disclose/allow the disclosure of any information about the parent to government representatives who may need it;  Increasing the number of older foster children in adoptive families, creating more grants (offering more money for fostering older children) to ―eliminate barriers,‖ to move children through different states, and other countries;  Prohibiting grants to the *foster care applicants unless the applicant agrees to give priority to infants and young children.

This last point may help explain why 82 percent of children dying in CPS custody are under the age of 5.49 Those who are emotionally unstable (who may drug a baby or toddler, placing them out of the way, in a dark room, for months at a time) and seeking higher payouts (or ― “grants”) from the federal government often register to care for the youngest members of the crop. Although members of Congress may have had children‘s best interests at heart, and a genuine desire to improve the bureaucratic guidelines, KCFSA managed to create an even larger network of local CPS affiliates and supporting agencies. There is anywhere from 175 to 800 CPS and affiliated agencies in each State, with each agency employing approximately 50 to 400 people.50

Congressional leaders behind the 2003 and 1997 Acts must have assumed that once parental rights terminated, the child would be adopted out into ― “permanency” – a permanent home. However, expert witnesses believe that more than 300,000 parental rights were terminated in 2011 and only 50,516 children were adopted that year.51 CPS offices have cooked the books to suggest the number of terminated parental rights equaled the number of adopted children, presenting the numbers to the federal government wants to hear, to keep their funding coming in, while thousands of children continue to languish in foster care.

Our Federal and State governments have no system in place to reliably estimate how many adoptions were successes vs. failures. We cannot assume that, in 2011, all 50,516 children who were adopted via this broken system are safe and cared for by their foster-parent-turned-adopted parent. Per U.S. policy, once an adoption has been finalized, “consummated,” “this family is treated as any other family.” CPS drops out of the picture, and Federal law does not require post- adoption monitoring. Post-adoption services provide support and offer services to the parents, not investigations, and not the children. In this country, there are no definitive statistics on the number of adoptions that have resulted in the adopted child‘s abuse, neglect, or death. Russia has a system in place, overseeing Russian children adopted into American families; seven out of ten adoptions were failures over a fifteen-year period. Russian children adopted by American parents were either chronic pedophiles, severely abusive, or parents who “rehomed” the Russian children (giving them away online to other adults), and numerous adoptions ended in the death of the child. Russian Parliament has recently halted all adoptions, indefinitely, to America.52

Because CPS adoptions are left unchecked, gaps in the CPS system have led to a practice called ”rehoming,” where adults who have legally adopted children through CPS sell, trade, or otherwise give away their unwanted children to other adults via the internet. This has taken place in local communities in the United States for more than 20 years.53*― “Kay,” a child victim of CPS and post-adoption abuse, was “rehomed” three times. After her first “forever parent” dumped her 10 days after the adoption was finalized, she experienced the same physical abuse, including being raped by all three foster dads and rejection two more times. In 2000, Kay *published a report, pleading for Reform, so that adopted parents could be monitored after an adoption order is granted and adopted children can receive access to outside support when they need it. In March 2014, the US Senate passed a bill that would bar people from transferring custody of children without going through a government agency.54 As Michigan State Representative Joel Kleefisch has said about this practice, ― “There is as much of a background check [for prospective foster and adopted parents] as for someone buying something at Wal- Mart.”

National “intelligence” services, such as the Children‘s Bureau‘s Child Maltreatment Report, are misleading. For instance, regarding the statistics on foster parent child abuse vs. birth parent child abuse, the birth parents‘ high numbers are based on CPS allegations, not on facts. Once the allegations are proven false, CPS has no obligation to update its original reports, deceiving Federal regulators who depend on these reports when deciding how and where to make system- wide adjustments. From my 19 years‘ worth of firsthand experience as a child advocate, researching the CPS industry, I would estimate that approximately 75 percent of birth parents accused of wrongdoing by CPS are innocent. As mentioned earlier, statistics reveal 64 percent of foster parents have been “reported” to mistreat the children in their care. As said earlier, experts close to this industry know the majority of foster parents‘ abuse goes unreported and the percentage of foster parents abusing their foster children is closer to *87 percent, possibly as high as 94 percent. Since CPS does not report or document abusive foster parents, the only foster care abuse numbers the Child Maltreatment Report has access to would come from local police departments. The Children‘s Bureau receives its information solely from Child Protective Services.

The 2003 KCFSA, in effect, re-victimizes innocent parents who lost their parental rights by allowing local, State, and Federal entities to review potentially suspect CPS claims. With more than two-thirds of parents found innocent of all CPS allegations55 (and the CPS having no obligation to correct or update information in their petitions and paperwork), these state, local, and federal entities may unfairly penalize or target that parent, resulting in lost job or housing opportunities, in addition to other forms of sabotaging their reputations and prospects. Every year, the content of the CPS Policy Manual is tweaked, to reflect any relevant changes or updates decreed at the State or Federal levels, legislatively or otherwise. Although Policy Developer Units work with the States‘ “legal units” to create a comprehensive CPS Policy Manual, CPS staff and supervisors are still not monitored and do not respect the rules and standards the federal government puts in place to protect our families and children.

Looking Ahead

The corruption and inconceivable cruelty within the CPS industry are similar to those that once involved this country‘s state mental hospitals. In the 1970s, when Dr. Robert Felix, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, was asked to explain his radical decision to close every State mental hospital in the country, he made it clear that drastic measures were called for. For more than 100 years, the general public knew the mental patients in State (custody) hospitals were severely abused, raped, and medically experimented on, and so on; but the notion of releasing them out into the open was thought be too risky and nobody had any solutions. Nevertheless, Dr. Felix‘s courageous decision was based on his statement; “We saw too many people who should have never been in there.” Finally, in 1973, the federal government, through Dr. Felix‘s recommendations, began to shut down/close the doors to every state hospital in the United States. It is not a perfect system, but it is more humane.

The CPS industry, on the Local and State levels, have greedily pulled the wool over the Federal government‘s eyes for more than 25 years.

CPS is systemically (and legally) abducting millions of children from their parents, bedrooms, homes, schools, hospitals, and playgrounds annually. The number of children being “taken” has gone up drastically for the past seventeen years. After being taken from their safe and loving families they are then labeled as ‘foster children.’ Then labeling them again as ‘special needs‘ children. Then giving them sedatives. These millions of vulnerable children (if they make it out of foster care alive) are scarred and alone for life, never knowing their parents were loving and capable, and that they were needlessly separated from them. CPS is destroying the fabric of American families and the self-worth of these children.

In addition to the children being traumatized, millions of parents‘ lives are destroyed. Many have not gone public with their grief or reports of CPS atrocities, simply because they suspect the general public will not give them benefit of the doubt, the same way the CPS courts have not. Parents victimized by CPS become paralyzed with fear and anxiety, often hampering their ability to proactively address any unjust acts of cruelty against their children and themselves. Former U.S. Senator Nancy Schaefer, with the help of retired Federal Investigator Bill Bowen (after a 4-year investigation), wrote a report in 2007, ― “The Corrupt Business of Child Protective Services.”56 It details the bold cruelty carried out by CPS caseworkers and foster parents working together for financial gain, using children as currency, not acting in the best interests of children. They also created a graphically disturbing documentary entitled “Innocence Destroyed,” and a video entitled “Kids for Cash,” each of which exposes how the current CPS system annually (and often barbarically) uses hundreds of thousands of children (if not millions) for financial gain.

From my research and nineteen years as a child advocate, and as a parent/victim of CPS, I have learned that the CPS industry is too entangled with local communities and high-ranking agencies to sustain any meaningful reform. Unfortunately, I believe any attempts to ― “reform” the Legislation and procedures currently on the books would result in further bureaucratic failure.

Somewhere between 24,000 to 60,000 and (possibly as high as 250,000) eighteen through 23- year-olds are released into greater society ― “aged out” each year from the foster care system.57 The Government statistics reports are designed to appear that the number of children “aging out” is significantly lower then the reality. They do this by separating the children into ethnic, populations, and class categories. For the past five years the number of children aging out of foster care has risen.58 These teens are emotionally scarred and have nothing – no family, no money, no support network. These children represent the fastest-growing population of homelessness in our country. Reforming CPS has failed relentlessly for over thirty years, due to the entanglement of the funds throughout the community. For all of these reasons, reconstructing CPS is imperative to end the ‘children as currency‘ epidemic.

We should consider permanently shutting down Child Protective Services, which would save the federal government ― “$1.6 billion in the Fiscal Year 2011 and +$9 billion over five years” which is the amount being spent on DHS/CPS ‘child care‘ annually.59 These funds could be reallocated to construct safe and healthy learning environments as state-of-the-art orphanages, similar to the Montessori system, introducing children to small animals, growing gardens, etc. Places that attract, recruit, and retain those who genuinely have children‘s and families‘ best interests at the front of their minds. Where individuals must have Master‘s Degrees and Doctrines in Child Development. Home-like, warm, and closely monitored atmospheres. Creating thousands of high-paying jobs, these funds could also be distributed to the public school systems.

Currently, billions of dollars are used to support the barbaric treatment of our most vulnerable citizens. Ending the daily corruption and sadistic culture within Child Protective Services is the civilized thing to do. ___________________________________________

2, 3— SEE: AFSCAR REPORT. ‘Child welfare Outcomes Report to Congress 08-11,’ “: Keeping Children Safe‘ C. “ p. in footnote you will find “**The total number of child victims is rounded to the nearest 1,000.” When the Children‘s Bureau (a division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services) annually reports the number of children who die in CPS custody, that number has been rounded off to the nearest thousand, a practice that has continued for years – so if the real number of children losing their lives in CPS custody was 1,499 in a given year, the Bureau would report it as 1,000. “the Child Welfare Outcomes Reports use the total reported number of child victims as opposed to a national estimate of child victims, which often is reported in Child Maltreatment.” Yet the next sentence says: “The total number of victims reported in this report is rounded to the nearest 1,000.” Obscuring the true numbers.

8— Author of CPS Report was told by several professionals in the CPS industry that ―it is has become common practice in CPS agencies to shred the files of a child that dies or goes missing in CPS. Retired CPS Supervisor a veteran of 30 years from Oklahoma Marilyn Rainwater has made it her mission to announce to the public these unsettling disturbing practices that occur daily in CPS offices across the nation.

9— Hundreds of article in newspapers report in every State annually over 15 years. Newspaper articles from all over the country have reported children in CPS enduring months of serial rapes vicious beatings etc. http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/article2572308.html. http://poundpuplegacy.org/posts?cid=21102&tid=case

10— AFSCARS Report “80 percent of children in CPS custody are considered having “emotionally problems” thus ripe for meds.” “80% of children in foster care have „emotional problems.‟ ”Knowing that it is the caseworkers that have the authority to label foster children where they see fit, this 80% could be linked to the 80% (80% of unofficial reports) of the children being abused in foster care.

11— AFSCARS Report While half of all children in foster care are considered having “chronic medical problems.” SEE: AFSCARS REPORT. With every label comes a prescription for that child. CPS caseworkers have the authority to label foster children as they see fit, which gives caseworkers an indirect license to prescribe medication.

12— Children‘s Bureau website

13— NCANDS Data & Statistics

14— :http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/article2572308.html

15— See Policy CPS Manual. Also See: State & federal laws provides for public employee immunity from liability for an injury caused by the employee instituting or prosecuting any judicial or administrative proceeding within the scope of their employment, even if he or she acts maliciously and without probable cause.” See, e.g., Abdouch v. Burger, 426 F.3d 982 (8th Cir. 2005) and Babcock v. Tyler (884 F.2d 497 (9th Cir. 1989) (absolute immunity shields social workers to the extent that their role is functionally equivalent to that of a prosecutor); Gray v. Poole, 275 F.3d 1113, (D.C. Cir. 2002) (qualified immunity covers social service workers acting as investigators, but when testifying as witnesses they are protected by absolute immunity). However, LESS then 1% of 1% of cps case workers have been held accountable under: “Qualified immunity is often afforded if the social work is involved in a “discretionary function” unless his or her conduct is clearly a violation of a statute or constitutional principle (Snell v. Tunnell, 698 F. Supp. 1542 (W.D. Okla. 1988). ); but see Burton v. Richmond, 276 F.3d 973 (2002) (when a state department of human services affirmatively places children in an abusive foster care setting, the state may be liable for damages.”

18— AFSCARS Report /Children‘s Bureau/ Child Welfare Gateway In these reports the charts read 39,000 (children) were in “high risk environments.” In the CPS industry this simply means endanger. Comparing the yearly number of children in foster care with the number of children in “high risk environments,” this comes out to only 6 percent of children in foster care were in dangerous environments.

20— ‘in several cases CPS caseworkers were not held responsible for murdered children only for tampering with evidence.’ ―”covering up child‘s trail” SEE: www.childlaw.us/legal_immunity_for_cps_workers

22— Note: apparently Americans do not want CPS office & case worker jobs, so naturally the word is out in certain cultural communities where they pick up the vacate CPS positions, these positions cover health insurance. The turn around rate is extremely high within CPS offices, the average employee lasting only one year to two, this includes Supervisors & Regional positions. https://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/

23— Note: apparently Americans do not want CPS office & case worker jobs, so naturally the word is out in certain cultural communities where they pick up the vacate CPS positions, these positions cover health insurance. The turn around rate is extremely high within CPS offices, the average employee lasting only one year to two, this includes Supervisors & Regional positions.

24― “CPS caseworkers have criminal ties” http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/article2572308.html ― “CPS family service workers who go into people’s homes to help families have been convicted or face charges of drug possession, theft, embezzlement or possession of heroin for sale. CPS office assistants (including caseworkers & affiliates) who handle sensitive case files have faced some of the most serious charges, including spousal abuse, illegal weapons possession, witness tampering, failure to provide for a child, identity theft, grand theft, embezzlement of county resources, welfare fraud, injury to a spouse and obstructing an officer.” Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/article2572308.html#storylink=cpy

25—After the manual became digitized in the late 1990s, its hard-copy predecessors were discontinued. This quote came from Retired Supervisor Marilyn Rainwater in May of 2014 in a phone interview.

28― “National Parents Organization”/seasoned reporter Robert Franklin said that CPS was being defiant against Senator Rick Murphy‘s, and that CPS did not have genuine concerns about his parenting skills. https://nationalparentsorganization.org/blog/21062-az-senator-murphy-smeared-by-child-protective-services

30- Spoken by Traverse city CPS caseworker Rosa Brenner to Judge Powers in Probate Court/Circuit Court in Grand Traverse Courts Nov, 1996, Also SEE: Leland Mi. June 1996 cover story; CPS takes toddler from mother and places toddler with much younger w/ extensive criminal record father living in a School Bus with twice convicted sex offender, toddler was found living in an deplorable conditions in a school bus with the two convicts after father was arrested on several accounts.

33―In 1980, the Adoption Assistance Child Welfare Act gave financial incentives to foster parents willing to adopt a child, to help lower the number of children living in foster care. This law directed caseworkers to make ― “reasonable efforts.” SEE: Public Law 96-272—June 17, 1980 http://uscode.house.gov/statutes/pl/96/272.pdf page 4

34- Today, foster parents are paid anywhere from $408 in the South, to $3,990 in Connecticut, per month, per child. http://www.ct.gov/dcf/cwp/view.asp?a=2639&Q=394382http://uscode.house.gov/statutes/pl/96/272.pdfhttp://www.childtrends.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/04/Foster-Care-Payment-Rate-Report.pdf Public Law 96-272—June 17, 1980

35— A woman in Florida, living in a million-dollar home, was found to have neglected five foster ― “’intensive structural’ children for over a decade, who were tucked away and sedated in two of her bedrooms, dehydrated and underweight.” SEE: similar story. http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123897&page=1 will be updated soon

36, 37- However, typically foster children go for $600 to $1,200 a month, with ― “special needs” children coming in at $900 to $3,990 a month. http://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Foster-Care-Payment-Rate-Report.pdf

38― “but can go as high as $13,000 a month for severely disable” http://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Foster-Care-Payment-Rate-Report.pdf Additional info will be updated soon

41―Encouraged by caseworkers, a majority of foster parents sedate ― “special needs” children 24 hours a day. CPS claims that 82 percent of children in foster care are in need of medication” 82% of CPS children on medication, comes from statistic that 82% have either ‘emotional problems‘ or ― “half of all children in foster care are considered having ―chronic medical problems” both labels require medication. See AFSCAR REPORT

44- See former U.S. Senator Nancy Schaefer‘s 2007 ― “The Corrupt Business of Child Protective Services,” http://fightcps.com/pdf/TheCorruptBusinessOfChildProtectiveServices.pdf Also could use additional research. 45- link to review letter from attorney Generals office and Representative Jason Allen: http://citizensagainstcps.com/2016/03/29/documents-from-patricias-cps-case/ and http://citizensagainstcps.com/2016/03/29/mi-state-attorney-generals-office-letters/

46―In the past ten years, children (who are U.S. citizens) have even been moved out of the country, often to Mexico or countries where a distant relative lives.‖ http://www.dhs.state.or.us/caf/safety_model/procedure_manual/ch04/ch4– section13.pdf

47- Footnote will be updated soon

48- “moving quickly” to terminate parental rights, which the Act refers to as “permanency planning.” ASFA requires that every child in state custody receives a ―permanency hearing‖ every 12 months. Other notable ASFA features include: clarifying cases without any requirement to reunite families; providing incentives for states to improve adoption rates; expanding health- care coverage for adopted children; providing funding for adoption encouragement efforts; and deterring states from delaying adoption procedures.

52―Russian Parliament has recently halted all adoptions, indefinitely, to America.‖ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/world/europe/russian-parliament-gives-final-approval-to-us-adoption-ban.html “The Russian bill was initially written to impose sanctions on American judges and others accused of violating the rights of adopted Russian children in the United States who became victims of child abuse. It was named for Dmitri Yakovlev, a toddler who died in Virginia in 2008 after his adoptive father left him in a parked car for nine hours. The father, Miles Harrison, was acquitted of manslaughter by a judge who ruled that while he was negligent he had not shown the ―callous disregard for human life‖ required for conviction.”

53- Because CPS adoptions are left unchecked, gaps in the CPS system have led to a practice called ―rehoming,‖ where adults who have legally adopted children through CPS sell trade or giveaway children. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/other/lawmakers-demand-stop-parents-giving-away-adopted-kids-internet-f8C11492450

54―In March 2014, the US Senate passed a bill that would bar people from transferring custody of children without going through a government agency‖ “Kudos to Rep. Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc) for being the lead sponsor on a bill that would make bar people from transferring custody of children to nonrelatives without going through government agencies.” http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/state-legislature-should-stop-messing-with-local-control-b99205740z1– 245625511.html

55― “The 2003 Keeping Children and Families Safe Act” or KCFSA in effect, re-victimizes innocent parents who lost their parental rights by allowing local, State, and Federal entities to review potentially suspect CPS claims. With more than two- thirds of parents found innocent of all CPS allegations” https://www.congress.gov/108/plaws/publ36/PLAW-108publ36.pdf

56―Former U.S. Senator Nancy Schaefer, with the help of retired Federal Investigator Bill Bowen (after a 4-year investigation), wrote a report in 2007, ― “The Corrupt Business of Child Protective Services.” See ― “The Corrupt Business of Child Protective Services” http://fightcps.com/pdf/TheCorruptBusinessOfChildProtectiveServices.pdf; Bill Bowen made a 30-minute documentary about CPS, ― “Innocence Destroyed,” that can be accessed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48YF1uEuCUA. In 2010, after losing her 2008 re-election bid, Nancy and Bruce Schaefer (her husband) agreed to finance Bowen‘s next CPS exposé– less than a year later, Senator Schaefer and her husband were killed. A few months later, Bill Bowen mysteriously died. The local police claim that Senator Schaefer‘s husband killed his wife and then himself, but the evidence does not support this claim.

57―Somewhere between 24,000 to 60,000 to 250,000 eighteen-to twenty three year-olds are released into greater society ― “’age out’ each year from the foster care system.” The Government statistics reports are designed to appear that the number of children ― “aging out” is significantly lower then the reality. They do this by separating the children into ethnic categories. Population, and class categories. For the past five years the number of children aging out of foster care has risen. http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/foster.pdfhttp://www.cnn.com/2014/04/16/opinion/soronen-foster-children/

58- https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/foster.pdf

59― “$1.6 billion in the Fiscal Year 2011 and +$9 billion over five years.”http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/olab/2011_all.pdf ― “Child Care (+$1.6 billion in FY 2011 and +$9 billion over five years).”